The Hornets kept the churn going at the back end of their offseason roster, signing guard Jarkel Joiner and waiving guard Kyle Mangas on Tuesday.
Joiner, a 6-foot-1 point guard out of NC State, went undrafted in 2023 and has spent each of his first three pro seasons in the G League. He signed non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deals with Atlanta in 2023 and 2024, then with Toronto in 2025, and has played for the Hawks’ and Raptors’ affiliates.
His most recent G League run came with Raptors 905, where he logged 49 games last season and put up 10.9 points, 3.6 assists and 2.4 rebounds in 23.7 minutes per game while shooting .446/.356/.820. He also saw action this year with the Vancouver Bandits in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
Charlotte has now followed the same pattern multiple times this week, signing a free agent and cutting him the next day. Josiah Allick, Trey Townsend and Mangas have all gone through that sequence, with the intention of steering them toward G League contracts and a fall spot with the Greensboro Swarm.
Those players are in line for Exhibit 10 bonuses worth up to $91K if they spend at least 60 days with Charlotte’s NBAGL affiliate.
One wrinkle for Joiner: his G League rights are still owned by Raptors 905, so Charlotte will need to work out a trade before the Swarm can bring him in. That move is expected to happen before the G League season starts.
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Hornets Keep Tweaking One Roster Battle Fans Usually Overlook
Roster shuffling at the back end of a teams depth chart usually does not make much noise, but the Hornets have been making another one of those quiet adjustments. Charlotte signed guard Jarkel Joiner and waived Kyle Mangas as part of the kind of late-summer transaction that rarely changes the big picture yet still matters for players trying to stick in the organization.
The move also fits the familiar pattern of Charlotte working with its G League pipeline, where these sign-and-waive decisions can be tied to Exhibit 10 bonus setups and the Greensboro Swarm. For a team trying to keep options open around the edges of the roster, these are the sorts of transactions that often look minor now and matter more when the regular season starts sorting out who stays close by and who does not. [Read more 🡒]
